Chris Crawford on Game Design

How Serious Is the Problem?

Opinions vary on the seriousness of this problem. Two wholly subjective matters control the debate: How creative is the industry, and how creative should it be? The industry's own terminology demonstrates its dearth of creativity: We all know that a “first-person shooter” requires the player to blast bad guys as he navigates a complex 3D environment, collects weapons and ammunition, and solves puzzles. In the same fashion, we have other tightly defined genres: side scrollers, adventures, role-playing games, wargames, simulators, and so on. There are also some standard variations on these games: The addition of an external story makes a “story side scroller” or a “story puzzle game.” There are also crosses between genres, ...